This week, the guys review:
Sing Sing: 0:39
4:30 Movie: 3:39
Rebel Ridge: 6:55
The Movies & A Meal Podcast
Sing Sing, 4:30 Movie and Rebel Ridge
[MUSIC] Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Movies and Meal, a podcast where we talk about movies and other things, it's why we eat, I'm your co-host Ben, and as always I'm joined by Keith. >> Hey. >> And Brad, what's up? >> All right, let's talk about three movies. Keith is going to review Sing Sing and then also, is it just called the 430 movie? >> I don't think this is the, I think it's just 430 movies. >> Okay, okay, two new releases, semi new releases. And then Keith and I are going to close talking about Rebel Ridge, a new Netflix action thriller. That's, development quite a buzz, and it's getting a lot of views on Netflix for sure. Let's kick it over to Brad so you can do the summary for Sing Sing. So Brad, what do you got? >> All right, summary's always courtesy of IMDB. Divine G imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn't commit. Finds purpose by acting in a theater group alongside other incarcerated men. And this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art. >> Now, my only hesitation in seeing the prison drama Sing Sing was that the story sounds very familiar. But here is one reborn with an authenticity and surprising joy that makes it stand out from the crowd and really sore. On its surface, Sing Sing is about a theater arts group imprisoned by led by Domingo's character that gives the inmates something to believe in among their bleak circumstances. But where this could have easily drifted into mockish territory, it never does due to amazing performances throughout led by Domingo. Supported by a mix of inmates playing themselves and great supporting actors. It's that mix of documentary and drama that really works for Sing Sing at its best. The story here from writer/director Greg Cudar and co-writer Clint Bentley sprang from the 2005 Esquire article The Sing Sing Follies by John H. Richardson. What they did with it, however, is entirely remarkable. Rather than just deliver a ready-made Hollywood fable, they re-reported the whole thing themselves and made the story all their own. What this created is, yes, a real sense of joy still never trivializes the hell of Sing Sing prison. Much as another recent movie starring Coleman Domingo, The Color Purple, did with that saga of racial injustice and sisterly bonding. Here, it's the natural give and take of the inmates as they need to talk about and then rehearse the scenes for their upcoming production. It gives us a loose and airy appeal, even among the dire circumstances. At the center of all is Domingo, already one of my favorites, and he's never been better than here as Divine G, who in real life is a playwright himself whose life went off the rails. He's at his best in the quiet moments as he prepares to take the stage, but shines also as a mentor and confidant to the inmates who sorely need both. A moment supporting cast, Paul Racy, and fans will know from side of metal, is perfect as the drama coach from the outside who works to wrangle all these egos into a coherent troupe. The best of all in supporting cast is Clarence Macklin, a former inmate himself, who plays Divine Eye, a fellow prisoner recruited him to troupe by Divine G. A divine divine rivalry would have been the easy way to play this out, but their growing bond is one of the prizes of Sing Sing that plays off big by the end. And there's a happy ending of sorts, but one that develops naturally never feels manufactured. It's a real accomplishment for filmmakers Kudar and Bentley, the letter of which made my single favorite movie of the 2021 Sundance Festival, Jockey. They're teaming up next for a movie based on the Dennis Johnson-Dovella train dreams, which should be a real treat. I'm not sure Sing Sing will make enough of an impact to earn Domingo a best actor Oscar nomination, but it certainly should. Sing Sing is still lingering in our house theaters, but we'll be streaming soon on Shira on Macs with another current A24 hits. For a present drama that takes familiar themes and surprising entirely rewarding directions, track it down for sure as soon as you can. And for all that and more, I will give Sing Sing 4 stars. Rod Tomatoes, critics and audience, Keith. Criticially like this, but I'll hedge it a little bit. I will go 95. And I think fans do too. You know, Koma Domingo is really becoming a sensation. I will go 85. Critics 98%, 159 reviews. Audience 93%, 250 plus reviews. Critics consensus courtesy of Rod Tomatoes, a moving celebration of arts for Demptive Power. Sing Sing draws its estimable emotional resonance from a never better Koma Domingo and equally impressive ensemble players. Yeah, I agree with that title. It's a really good movie. Speaking of movies, let's talk about 430 movie. Brad, you got the summary for that one? Yeah, summer is always courtesy IMDB. A group of teens in the 1980s spend a day theater hopping. Yeah, you know, that simple summary tells you that this is a very simple movie, but one I put most part in joy. You know, the most dead-on criticism of Kevin Smith movies is that they're made only for his fans, and that's certainly true. That doesn't mean that they still can't be funny and sweet. And this one, the new one, 430 movie, actually is. What you get with this latest, which snark artists have been derisively comparing to the Fae women's? While these are indeed both biographical and about respective directors growing up with the love of movies, that's where the similarities really end. What's missing that's delivered here is one hijinks and romance-filled day in the teenage life of his on-screen alter ego, Brian David. And that's almost enough to sustain this barely 90-minute movie. Then it runs out of steam before he manages to add anymore, still work for me, because they light and breezy comedy, not laid down with the jaded armor of his clerk's collection, which is what I need to have a long week. In it, we meet our hero, Brian, as he finally gets the nerve to call up the girl of his dreams to escort out to the titular 430 movie. From there, a 430 movie doll will say like a little but never surprising trip down memory lane to 1986. Or it was, as for many of us, the local cineplex was the center of the world. There, Brian and two of his buds clang around and constantly annoy the movie theater manager, Ken Zhang, and the role that gives you just the right amount of him to steal the show. Their entire scheme is to sit there a mile but a funny, less than R-rated movie, so they can sneak into the R-rated 430 movie with the guest of Honor Melody. And when it works, the charm is missed latest is that it just looks like something thrown together by a group of friends, including his daughter, yes, Harley Quinn Smith, and the funniest of the fake trailers that offer the biggest laughs. But Brian and Melody are what makes this really work best. Our young couple, played by Austin Zahar and Sienna Agadong, gave us a real charm once they're on screen together. But until they get there, the women here are given little to do, including Rachel Dratch, Kate Bakucci, and Yuna Drop-In from Smith's semi-regular Rosario Dawson. That's just one symptom of why Smith's movies don't appeal to more than his most ardent fans. A bigger problem is that this is yet another owed to a protagonist who puts growing up off to a future date, and that is wore a little thin by now for sure. That said, if you wait for streaming, you'll get a sweep off and funny and nostalgia-filled treat that floats by almost as quick as you can blink. And do watch Into the Credits, where I joke that squarely into clerk's fans that maybe laugh out loud. I'll give this Mumpy Ride down memory lane two and a half stars. I'm about to make this critics an audience, Keith. Ooh, this one is tricky. Critics, I think people like this more than most of his movies, so I will go 70%. Fans is going to be a small fan base. There were four people when I saw it, and we were juggling off the air about how people saw it in the theater. But I will go 80, because I know they like him. Alright, well, critics, 76%, 29 reviews. Audience, and I'm going to put a caveat star here, because they, on the main page, it did not have a rating, but I decided to take the extra mile, the extra initiative, and I just counted up all reviews, which there was 22. And I just took the average of the positive and the negative, and did a percentage from that, and I got 86%. Wow. Well, you know, yeah, he does have a cult, which I appreciate, and I'm enough of it and enough of it. I hadn't seen one since clerk's two, but when his movies get a little buzz, I still go see them. It makes me happy that people see this movie. Alright, so let's close it out with a third movie, and that's Rebel Ridge, and I'll ask Brad for the third time for the summary. Alright, so I'm recurred to see if I end to be. And Ex-Marine grapples his way through a web of small town corruption, when an attempt to post bail for his cousin escalates into a violent standoff with the local police chief. This movie was not on any of our radars when came out, but it's one of those movies that has gotten a lot of buzz in the last couple of weeks. It's been the number one movie on Netflix for a sense of debut in early September. And basically, Keith and I just came to the decision to watch it separately, but almost at the same time. And I gotta say, it's kind of lived up to the expectations. This movie stars Aaron Pierce as the main character, the Marine that's kind of wronged. I hadn't really seen a lot of him before. Keith was a little bit more familiar from a television show that he reviewed. He just has a presence to him. You know, I think a lot of people, and rightfully so, make some comparisons to First Blood. And it has a vibe of that for sure. And Sofia Rob is in this, Don Johnson, who we always like to see. And I mentioned Keith, a good character actor, Dave Detman, who, I don't know, most people might think of as Roy from The Office. And he's been in some other stuff. Brad, you would know him as the tight end who was deaf from Gallaudet from The Replacements. I think that was his first movie, actually. That's a deep dot. It's not a lot of action. You know, First Blood has a lot of action when you compare it to this. But it's just very suspenseful. Yeah, it's definitely worth the watch, for sure. This one kind of stuck on me, too. But, you know, I've always liked the movies of Jeremy Salmiare. He's made a green room, and what was the other one I liked? Blue Ruin. So I had no idea this was coming, but when I saw it on Netflix, yeah, I jumped on it just quickly as Ben did. And, you know, AirPair is the lead. He's fantastic. He's bulky enough that you expand. You just expect him to kick butt in a moment. But really, this is a deeper movie than that. He didn't. Just as often outsmarts the cops. And I really liked, especially in the way, he and Don Johnson played off each other. That scene where, you know, it's first revealed that what his power, you know, kind of what his background is. We won't give it too much away, but he has a military background and some skills that make him good for this movie. The way that slowly revealed to the cops inside the station as he's standing outside is really funny. The best use of Wikipedia I've seen in a long time. But yeah, just the way they play off each other. And I like, you know, this is, I will say, it's probably about ten minutes too long because when it gets into the weeds of the civil forfeiture, it's really a bit a little hard to follow, but that didn't bother me too much because it gives him a real world mission to get his cousin out of prison. And it just really gives this movie more smarts than I, more smarts not expected, but it also just works if you want to straight up action moving with a little less action. But it works on a lot of levels, and although I thought the Anastasia Rob character was a bit tacked on, I always like to see her, you know, she was a soul surfer, she's always been one of my favorites. There were probably a few too many layers here, but it still all comes together for a very solid and smart action movie. And it starts out, I'm not smelling too much, it starts out perfectly as he's riding down the road and he simply gets knocked off the road by these two cops, and you know it's not going to end well. But it very, it drops you right into the action and perfectly sets up everything this to come, and you know there's no action, actual action in that scene, but it's so intense. And even at the end, you know, there's the standoff with the cops and it's mainly him and Don Johnson, and you find out more about who's good and who's a bad cop, I won't spoil it for you, but there's a lot of different layers, like who you expect. A lot of this has to do with whether or not police departments actually were reformed themselves when they were supposed to, drew out corruption. This department kind of did, but you find out in ways that I won't get into whether they did or not. So there's different characters that they interchange who you think they are throughout, so it sets up, even though the final scene is not a lot of action, it's a great action scene. So yeah, the action when it comes here is used very smartly. It's really close to say that it's nice to see these kind of movies, it's a Netflix movie, but it's just a good example of like, you don't need to have this big, job-wick action flavor, or like a Michael Bay level car chase to have a good movie. I mean it's a pretty, a lot of things considered, it's a pretty low-key movie, but definitely one that's watchable and even had two hours and basically two hours. Yeah, there's some fat to be trim, like you've said, but it's definitely a watchable movie. Why don't we go ahead and do the readings, why don't you go first, Keith? I will, I was fluctuating between three and three and a half, but I really like this movie, so I will give it three and a half stars, it's a solid action movie all around. Sure, I'm going to go ahead and say three and a half too. Again, this was in our radar, I don't know, maybe it might sneak in my top ten of just movies that I've enjoyed this year, so. Brad. Oh, Rob, today this is Chris, an audience, Beth, how much do you got first? People are really raving about this movie. 87% for the critics and audience, I'll go 95. Wow, you know, I think Ben's pretty much right, but just for Price's right, I'll go like 83 on the critics and fans, it's going to be in the 90s, I'll go 92. Alright, critics, 95%, 81 reviews, audience, 71%, 500 plus reviews. A lot of cook and cops, I guess. Credits consensus courtesy of Ronda Maylous, intelligent and gripping vehicle for air and pears, star making performance, Rebel Ranch lays down the law on its action thriller counter, our contemporaries. So, did I say his name wrong, did I say air and pears, is it air and pears? Air and pears. Air and pears, okay. You said air and pears, I thought I was like air and pears. I thought I was like air and pears. Well, on the record, it's air and pears. Yeah, well, you know, I'm not too surprised at the fan reaction, that was good joke about a crew's cops, but the Civil Forces stuff kind of gets in the weeds. And if you want to learn about that, it's good, but it takes only a little bit away from the overall flow of the movie. Okay, I think we're done, but why don't we close it out with a box office, so Brad, what do you got? All right, and I'm just going to lead off with this, our alone movie in the theaters, 430 movie, it only made $115,000 on 235 theaters apparently, so this is from a non-normal source I use, so we'll just use that. Four people at my screen, including me, laughed a lot on that, so I'm going to say they get 86% on the audience on the non-traditional rot tomato score method, but yeah, so 115 to say $1,000 a week. I mean, it's not a lot of money. Yeah, basically, no. First, not surprising, number one, beetle juice, beetle juice, $51.6 million, two-week total of $188 million, so it's right and high. Number two, and it's opening weekend, speak no evil, $11.5 million. Number three, still hanging in there, Deadpool and Wolverine, $5.2 million a week, eight-week total of $621.5 million. Wait, what wreck was that? That's number three. Wow, okay. Number four is the, I don't know if it's a comedy special or a stand-up special or whatever, but am I racist? It's a weird, I don't know exactly, but yeah. Yeah, it's a comedy thing, we'll just say. It's opening weekend, $4.75 million, and then rounding out the top five, Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid. Yeah, that's Quaid, $2.9 million a week, $3-week total of $23 million. Except for a beetle juice, that is a terrible week at the box. Yeah, well, they're kind of in the drags. Yeah, it is, and I don't think it's going to get much better. Keith, you want to do the plugs? Sure, you can reach us at Movies in the Meal, OG@gmail.com. We'll move the meal on X slash Twitter, and you can just listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or we'll be finding pockets. Okay, so for this episode of Movies in the Meal, love that. And Keith, Grant, peace! (upbeat music) (upbeat music)